The Blighted City (The Fractured Tapestry #1) by Scott Kaelen #DarkFantasy #BlightedCity

The Blighted City (The Fractured Tapestry #1) by Scott Kaelen #DarkFantasy #BlightedCity

To challenge the gods is to invite their wrath. So it is written of Lachyla, the Blighted City, in the Codex of the Ages. But who reads codices? And who really believes the tall stories of the Taleweavers?

Dagra does. If it’s a story about the gods – even a dead god – he believes every word. When his sellsword team is offered a contract to cross the Deadlands and find a burial jewel in the crypts of the Blighted City, Dagra wants no part of it. His companions are undaunted by the legend; to them, the blurred divide between the living and the dead is superstitious nonsense. Completing the contract would earn their guild’s failing reputation a much-needed boost and secure them the bounty of a lifetime. They’re going, with or without him. Torn between the convictions of his beliefs and the importance of his friendships, Dagra reluctantly journeys into the godless region in search of the fabled city. But the Deadlands are only the first challenge.

The sellswords uncover an age-old deception when they learn that Lachyla’s foul seed is much darker than its legend, that its truth must forever remain untold or risk plunging humanity into an eternal nightmare. Snagged on the barbs of the blight, Dagra faces the toughest choice of his life … and of his death.

What a pearl this story is! I absolutely fell in love with the new language that this author uses in his book. It just made it so much more authentic. The Taleweavers are storytellers, the Sellswords of course a sort of mercenary paid to do a particular dangerous job where they could face some sort of enemy and have to fight. The book is full of such words, the thing is you know straightaway what they are.

Three Sellswords are hired to travel through the Deadlands to the Blighted City and retrieve a gem from the underground tombs. The Taleweavers tell stories of the walking dead that roam there to protect the gem. The money is the carrot that can’t be resisted and so off they go. All of the Sellswords are very different, some with more attitude than others. What they encounter is far more than the stories they have heard. There is the living dead, yes but so much more too. This gem is one highly protected stone, or it was, until they stole it, now a chain of events is triggered that will change so many lives of the living and change them of those that are already dead too. Think sort of Tomb Raider or Raiders of the last Arc sort of thing. Nothing is as it seems. This is a belting story where actions cause consequences but a square peg will never fix back into a round hole. Lives have been set on new courses.

Things have happened that they don’t know about that for me takes the book the extra distance to make it a fabulous read. The descriptions are tremendous, detailed and at times, what you see isn’t really how things really are sort of thing. You have to adjust your mind and listen. There is heartbreak and regret among them. I really liked Dagra, the head of the group and very much the conscience of right and wrong with his beliefs, while Jalis and Oriken are a little more robust in their manner.

This is an awesome fantasy read, what I love about this genre is anything is possible and Scott Kaelen has exercised his imagination to make everything work in perfect harmony. The story line has a solid purpose, with an array of characters that have unique personalities that are memorable. A brilliant read with an author not afraid to use dramatic and realistic outcomes. Still tickled by the language.

This can be read as a stand alone novel but a second book is being written. I received an e-copy of this book from the author and this is my honest review.

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Kaelen writes in the genres of epic fantasy, science fiction, horror, humour, poetry and non-fiction. His published works include the poetry volume DeadVerse and the essays book Life, The Universe & Free Thinking. His current projects are a second novel in The Fractured Tapestry series and a second volume of poetry.Scott’s interests include etymology, psychology, prehistoric Earth, the Universe, cRPGs, and reading and watching sci-fi, fantasy and horror. His favourite sci-fi shows are Stargate, Farscape, Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Primeval and Killjoys